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Thursday, October 30, 2008

I thought you might all like to know that Melissa Ustik of Honey Girl Studio has another wonderful FREE Tutorial on her Honey Girl Studioblog. This one is about creating decorative paper.

Decorative Paper Tutorial

I've been experimenting with pages from books to make my own decorative papers for backgrounds on my Artist Trading Cards as well as collages. I thought you might like to see the process......

The first thing to do is to get a book you are willing to sacrifice and tear out a page. Dilute a little acrylic paint and brush over the entire page. Make sure it is diluted enough that you can still see the text show through.....

Next dilute a little bit of robin egg blue acrylic paint and dip the bottom of the paint bottle in it and stamp circles randomly over the paper.......

After the blue circles have dried, I took a bronze colored ink pad and dabbed it all over the paper here and there.......

I looked through my stamp collection and found swirls and I flower that I liked and stamped with black ink over everything.....

Next, I took the tip of the brush and dipped it into crocus yellow paint and made dots all over...

The last thing I did was to take sequin waste and use to it stencil dots with brown ink.

You know those favorite jeans that you just can’t bear to throw out? I recently had a pair of those, which I wore and washed countless times, until the seat was worn nearly through. While renovating this house, they finally gave up the fight after too many ascents to the top of a ladder. At that point, I sadly retired those jeans, but I didn't throw them away.

I have several projects in mind for my jeans, and the first is a business card case. This could also be used as a coin purse if you choose a more secure fastener for the front.

Cheryl's Bio: Cheryl is a graphic designer with a BFA in graphic design, 15 years of quilting experience, and several textile teaching positions. She loves to explore new techniques and materials and utilizing both in new products for her website. She is also a photographer and painter, and occasionally offers art pieces for sale. Cheryl also takes custom textile or fine art orders and can be contacted at cheryl@bayoubags.com .

Sunday, October 26, 2008

I thought you might all like to know that Melissa Ustik of Honey Girl Studio has a wonderful FREE Tutorial on her Honey Girl Studioblog about creating an ATC (i.e. Artist Trading Card) card.

Here's Melissa's tutorial:

ATC Tutorial

I call this the anatomy of an ATC. Putting together the elements of an Artist Trading Card reminds me of quilting in a way. I have a quilting friend who told me the formula for a nice looking quilt which is the following: fabric in 3 lights, 3 darks, 2 mediums; 2 solids, 4 prints, 1 plaid, 1 stripe. The same is true of creating an ATC, at least for me. I have a little formula for myself and although I vary here and there this is basically how it goes: a dark, a light, a medium colored papers; black rubber stamp(s), a stripe paper, a dotted paper, paper punch forms (flowers, etc.), a copy of a vintage photo or postcard. Then I start to layer the elements. I use gel medium which really adheres papers nicely and keeps them down.

Pick out 4 to 6 papers, one dark, one light and one medium in colors.....

I start with a paint chip for the back. It adds good stability.

I glued the dark blue decorative paper onto the paint chip back with the gel medium.......

Next I stamped the flower image with black ink 2 places on the card and used the distressing ink and smudged on the ink with the round sponge here and there......

I copied a bunny image from a vintage postcard and a vintage photo of a little boy. I colored the boy's shirt and pants in with marker. Flowers were punched out of the pink with white polk-a-dot paper and glued down.

Lastly, I add the little finishing touches such as adding ears to the boy and a tiny banner with the word "joy" stamped on it.

Here is the finished ATC, ready for Easter! The title of it is: Two Bunnies!

Friday, October 24, 2008

Here's what Cheryl had to say about her quilted bookcover how-to:
Maybe one of these days I’ll show you what’s usually in my bag, but I’m afraid you’ll be so put off by the mess that you’ll never come back here. I will tell you that it always contains a book. Since most of my books come from the library, I realized that it might not be a good idea to leave them floating around unprotected in my bag, so I've started making bookcovers to keep them safe. The quilted bookcover pictured above is sized to fit a thick mass market paperback, but you can make these in any size you like.

Cheryl's Bio: Cheryl is a graphic designer with a BFA in graphic design, 15 years of quilting experience, and several textile teaching positions. She loves to explore new techniques and materials and utilizing both in new products for her website. She is also a photographer and painter, and occasionally offers art pieces for sale. Cheryl also takes custom textile or fine art orders and can be contacted at cheryl@bayoubags.com .

Thursday, October 23, 2008

I thought you might all like to know that Karen Watson has a TON of FREE vintage graphics and clipart on her The Graphics Fairy blog. If you love vintage clip art and graphics then Karen has some wonderful FREE graphics.

Here's what Karen had to say about her blog:

I have to confess I have a paper addiction! I've decided to share many pieces from my huge collection of vintage and antique paper items here on my site. Selections will include old wallpaper, early photos, advertising pieces, Victoriana scraps, and other assorted ephemera. These images are suitable to use in your collages, for scrapbooking, or as clip art for web design, etc. and they are free!

The Graphics Fairy is an angel company. Which means you can use these images to make a product that you intend to sell. There are a few rules though so please read below:

1. The graphics are free however you may not use more than 4 of the clip art images in any single product.
2. In order to use these lovely visuals you will need to save them to your computer.
3. Do not link directly to the images.
4. If you use these on your blog, website, etc. Please include a link back to The Graphics Fairy at http://www.graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/ .
5. Have fun!

Here's a sampling of some of Karen's FREE graphics and some of her 59 categories:

Please respect Karen's TERMS OF USE: - The Graphics Fairy is an Angel Company. You are free to use all clip art and photos, with the exception of the banner, in any of your projects created for resale or pleasure. Please do not use more than 4 of the graphic images within any one project, or single blog/website page. A link to the Graphics Fairy is very much appreciated, when including clipart on your blog or website. Thank you!

If you want to make your own face cabochon, don't hesitate to try it. These step by step instructions can get you started and before long you will be flying on your own.

There are as many ways to make a face as there are faces to be made. This just happens to be the way I work. So, don't be afraid to experiment - you need to find what works for you. And always remember, if you don't like the way it turns out simply wad up the clay and start over (there is a certain amount of satisfaction in squashing a particularly troublesome project). No one will ever know........

Please respect Dottie's TERMS OF USE: Please ask permission before using my photos or words. You can contact me at Dottie@stonebrashcreative.com.

Dottie is a working artist who teaches beadweaving, macrame, and polymer clay techniques. She has been published in numerous beading magazines and included in several books. Visit her website www.stonebrashcreative.com to see more one-of-a-kind jewelry and check out her class schedule.

Please respect Elsie's TERMS OF USE: All patterns copyright Else M. Tennessen. You can make these items for personal use and limited sale as long as a credit is given saying "From a pattern by Else Tennessen, www.bellasartes.blogspot.com." Please do not sell, copy or distribute this pattern in any way. Do not link directly to the pattern; please link to www.bellasartes.blogspot.com.

Bio: Else is an artist and writer living in the Windy City. She is the mother of four boys and "dog mom" to a rat terrier named Daisy. She enjoys many types of arts and crafts, and is currently learning to hand spin her own yarn.

Please respect Elsie's TERMS OF USE: All patterns copyright Else M. Tennessen. You can make these items for personal use and limited sale as long as a credit is given saying "From a pattern by Else Tennessen, www.bellasartes.blogspot.com." Please do not sell, copy or distribute this pattern in any way. Do not link directly to the pattern; please link to www.bellasartes.blogspot.com.

Bio: Else is an artist and writer living in the Windy City. She is the mother of four boys and "dog mom" to a rat terrier named Daisy. She enjoys many types of arts and crafts, and is currently learning to hand spin her own yarn.

Please respect Monica's Terms of Use: Have fun creating different variations of fabric beads and please feel free to sell your finished pieces! My "How To Make Fabric Beads" tutorial may not be copied, reprinted, emailed or distributed by any means without my permission.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

I thought you would all like to know that Eydie Liebelt has the most adorable free tutorial on creating embroidered drawer sachets on her She Brews blog/website that I think you will enjoy.

Drawer Sachets - Part 1

I started with moda charms of 12" X 12" I purchased on-line at Fat Quarter Shop . I made a template out of mat board measuring 3"x 4" and cut four pieces of muslin , at this point you could trace your embroidery pattern on your muslin with a water- soluble pen. Then iron blank side with heat and bond lite. After folding the 12 x12 in half, I centered and lined it up close to the bottom (leaving room for seam allowance) and ironed the muslin applique to the 12x12. I use the heat and bond lite because it allows stitching with reasonable ease. I like to embroider on two layers because I don't worry about my needle travel showing through......

Here you can see the pattern traced on the muslin. You can stitch around the applique any stitch you like. I don't know the technical word for this stitch I use, but it is the one I use the most, although if you know blanket stitch, that would work well too. Stitching around the border makes it nice and clean and I don't worry about it lifting. I also use DMC cotton perle size 8. I like this better than embroidery floss, or maybe I just haven't used embroidery floss because I used this first....lol. Maybe I would really like embroidery floss if I used it.....

I store my perle cotton in little cases made for matchbox cars. I can carry quite a number of colors with me at once when I travel.

I looked to see if I do the borders first and then the design or the other way around....I don't think it matters and I think I change up because that's how I am---I don't like "beaten" paths as well as the new ones......

I am not going to post the patterns today, because I will be posting them on the Flickr Embroidery Blog tomorrow with the finished bags pictures. Make sure you check them out tomorrow.

Once the bags are embroidered, I sew a hem on the top of bag, fold it right side in and stitch it closed except for the top of the bag. Clip the corners, pull right side out and fill with a dryer towel and some cotton batting and tie the top with matching ribbon. Package them up nice and give them to mom for mother's day. There you go.

More pictures tomorrow.

Drawer Sachets - Part 2

Hi Everybody,

I realize I never posted the picture of the sachets completed on my blog. I posted the patterns on Feeling Stitchy . But, if they get buried, I have a link in the sidebar in the tutorials. Here is a close-up of all the patterns:

I have been getting a lot of visits, so after looking at the tutorial, I noticed that it seemed incomplete without the finished pictures. The tutorial itself is two posts back. Feel free to ask if something isn't clear. I love finding tutorials on other blogs and appreciate the time people take to make them. I will post one every so often and try to keep them in the tutorial links for your convenience. Thanks for visiting me, and I love comments, so don't be shy!

Chasity's Bio - Chasity Gordon is the owner of Belle South and Belle and Burger blog. She makes clothing, accessories, household items, baby clothes and slings, and handmade cards, prints and books. She is a home schooled seamstress and crafty by nature, but trained as a studio print maker studying printmaking and ceramics in college and was drawn to "lowbrow" functional art. She uses pockets, patches, apron bibs and wallet fronts as sort of blank pages to draw and collage with bits of fabric and string.

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